


It brought me to you

by MissDawsonHadleyRivers



Category: Titanic (1997)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, roseandjack, titanicbutbyJack
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27436309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissDawsonHadleyRivers/pseuds/MissDawsonHadleyRivers
Summary: Titanic was told by Rose, but what was Jack thinking? Companion story to I will never forget you. Please read and review! Disclaimer: I don't own Titanic. Literally, I don't even own the storyline.
Relationships: Jack Dawson/Rose DeWitt Bukater
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

My eyes flick past Tommy for just a second and then my gaze catches on an angel. She walks out onto the deck and rests her arms on the railing. She doesn't look as posh and pompous as the other people in first-class I've seen. In her eyes I can see a deep sadness as she stares out at the ocean. She looks almost … trapped. A few curls frame her beautiful face. Beautiful seems like almost an insult, she's far more than that. There aren't words in the English language to do her justice.

"Ah, forget it boyo. You're more likely to have angels fly out your arse than get next to the likes of her." Tommy chuckles. She looks over in my direction for a moment and then away again, and I don't think she's seen me at all until she looks back, slightly confused at the man staring at her, I guess. Something waves in my line of sight for a second, but I barely notice it, looking only at her.

A dark-haired man walks over and taps her on the shoulder, clearly trying to persuade the angel to go inside. She resists for a minute, before giving in and walking inside. I blink and I hear Fabrizio and Tommy laughing. "A first-class girl, eh?" Tommy teases and Fabri says "It is amour." Amour. Love. "Maybe." I reply but I know it is more than maybe. I love her and I don't even know her. This is crazy.

I puff down the cigarette and stare up into the night sky, watching the stars. It still feels surreal, that I'm on Titanic, the ship of dreams. And the angel I saw earlier. I can't take my mind off her and I don't want to. She's an angel but she's a trapped angel. I've always been able to tell these things about people, ever since I can remember. Suddenly, someone rushes past me, sobbing. I sit up quickly and look after them. It's a woman, with red hair tumbling down their back, wearing a red dress and they're running towards the back of the ship. I follow her and I watch as she hangs onto a … for a moment before walking towards the rail. Theres something about her but I can't put my finger on it. She climbs up onto the rail and as she grabs the pole for balance, she looks back for a minute and my breath catches in my throat. It's her, the angel. She climbs over the rail and leans away from the ship.

"Don't do it." I walk up behind her slowly, so not to startle her.

She half turns around. "Stay back! Don't come any closer!"

"Come on, just give me your hand and I'll pull you back over." I try to convince her, holding out my hand.

"No! Stay where you are. I mean it. I'll let go!" I stop where I am, not wanting to scare her by coming any closer. I can't help here from here though. I take my cigarette, blow through it, hold it up so she can see what it is and step close enough to the railing to throw it into the ocean.

"No, you won't". I can tell she won't let go, this isn't really what she wants, but she doesn't think she has any other way out. What has happened to her to make her feel like this?

"What do you mean, no I won't? Don't presume to tell me what I will and will not do! You don't know me." She retorts angrily.

"Well, you would have done it already. Now come on, take my hand."

"You're distracting me. Go away!"

"I can't. I'm involved now. You let go, I'm going to have to jump in there after you". She stares at me like I'm crazy, but I know that I'll do it if I have to.

"Don't be absurd. You'll be killed." I take off my coat to show her how serious I am about jumping in the water after her. "I'm a good swimmer." I say as I start to unlace my shoes.

"The fall alone would kill you." Yes, and it would kill you too, so if that's your way of trying to talk me out of it, that's not gonna work.

"It would hurt. I'm not saying it wouldn't. To be honest, I'm a lot more concerned about that water being so cold." If scaring her is the only way to get her to take my hand and come back over the rail, then I'll do it. I flick my eyes between my shoes and her. She's looking less and less sure of what she's doing.

"How cold?" she asks warily.

"Freezing. Maybe a couple degrees over." I can see she doesn't want to do this. I want to find whoever made her feel like this and punch them. "Ever, uh, ever been to Wisconsin?". For a moment I don't think she's heard me.

She looks at me like I'm crazy. "What?"

"Well they have some of the coldest winters around. I grew up there, near Chippewa Falls. And I remember, when I was a kid, me and my father we went ice-fishing out on Lake Wissota." If she doesn't know what ice-fishing is, this story won't make much sense. "Ice-fishing is you know where you- "

"I know what ice fishing is!" She interrupts angrily. I hold my hands up.

"Sorry. You just, you know, seem like kinda an indoor girl." I try to explain and then pause for a second. "Anyway, I, uh, I fell through some thin ice and I'm tellin'you, water that cold, like right down there, it hits you like a thousand knives stabbing you all over your body. You can't breathe, you can't think, least not about anything but the pain." I remember that cold, all these years later. I never want anyone else to feel that pain, ever.

"Which is why I'm not looking forward to jumping in there after you." As I say this, I pull off my jacket. "But like I said, I don't have a choice". I lock eyes with her, pleading for her to come back over the rail, for both our sakes. I could never leave her here to jump. "I guess I'm kinda hoping you'll come back over the rail and get me off the hook here." She stares at me as if I've lost my mind. "You're crazy!"

"That's what everybody says. But with all due respect, miss, I'm not the one hanging off the back of a ship here." I say as gently as I can. "Come on. Come on, give me your hand. You don't wanna do this. I try to convince her, holding out my hand" She stays frozen for a long moment. Then she takes my hand and I grasp her hand firmly as she turns to climb back over the rail.

"Phew. I'm Jack Dawson." Seems appropriate to introduce myself now.

"Rose Dewitt Bukater." Rose. It's a beautiful name and it suits her perfectly. "I'm gonna have to getcha to write that one down.". Rose laughs tentatively and puts one foot on the first bar of the railing. Suddenly, she slips and falls towards the ocean. Her scream rings out. I grunt as I get pulled forward and I grab her hand with my other hand as well.

"I've got you. Come on! Come on!" I try to pull her back to safety and for a moment it works but then she loses her handhold on the rail and drops again. "No!" I haul her back up again. "Help, please! Help, please! Please, help me!"

"Listen to me. I've got you, I won't let go. Now pull yourself up. Come on!" I shout. Slowly, she comes further and further away from the ice-cold water. "Come on, that's right. You can do it!". Finally, I've got her in my arms, pulling her over the rail. "I've got you." We both fall to the deck and as much as I try to fight it, trying to turn around so that I take the impact not her, I lose my grip on her waist and she falls to the deck and I fall on top of her. We stay there for a moment, breathing heavily. Just as I'm about to stand up, give her a hand up and walk her back away from the rail, I hear footsteps running towards us.

"What's all this?" It suddenly hits me what this looks like. I quickly move away from Rose so that I'm kneeling beside her but it's too late. They couldn't have come one minute later could they?


	2. Chapter 2

"You stand back, and don't move an inch!"

I do as he says, shoving my hands in my pockets. "Fetch the Master at Arms!"

The Master at Arms appears a few minutes later with a few other men, the man I saw the first time I saw Rose and another man from first-class. As the Master at Arms handcuffs my hands behind my back, the first man walks towards me and stands right in front of me. "What made you think you could put your hands on my fiancée?"

Fiancée, huh? Yet somehow you didn't notice how unhappy your fiancée was. Angered by my lack of response, he grabs my shirt and shoves me. "Look at me, you filth!"

"Cal, stop. It was an accident!" Rose interrupts, coming up behind Cal. She's wrapped in a blanket and has been sitting in shock on a bench for the last few minutes. "An accident?" Cal scoffs, unbelievingly. "Yes. Stupid really. I was leaning over, and I slipped!" It's a pretty believable lie especially to first-class men who think women have as much sense as a rabbit. Idiots. "I was leaning far over to see the uh, uh, uh the uh, uh…" she moves her hands in a spinning motion. I think she means the propellers? Cal clearly has the same thought "The propellers?" Rose looks relieved. "The propellers and I slipped, and I would have gone over-board, but Mr Dawson here saved me and almost went over himself." In a way, its true, I guess. That's clever of her.

"She wanted to see the, she wanted to see the propellers!" Cal says, looking around at the crew members, laughing. The other first-class man speaks for the first time "Like what I said, women and machinery do not mix." Again with the patronising first-class men. "Was that the way of it?" the Master at Arms growls. I look at Rose for a second, clearly she doesn't want her fiancée to know about her attempt to jump off the back of the ship, before answering. "Yeah, that was pretty much it." I know something about Rose that her overbearing fiancée doesn't. I smile at her to reassure her that I won't tell him.

"Well then the boy's a hero! Good for you son, well done!" the other first-class man exclaims. "Now all's well and back to our brandys, eh?" He starts to walk away. The Master at Arms unlocks the handcuffs and turns and walks in the opposite direction. Any apology for arresting me? Apparently not.

"Look at you, you must be freezing! Let's get you inside." They walk to where the other man is standing. He nods towards me "Uh, perhaps a little something for the boy? "That's the first sign of gratitude I've seen from any of them. "Of course. Mr Lovejoy, I think a twenty should do it." I'd have thought your fiancée should be worth more to you than a twenty, but then first-class people are odd.

Rose clearly has the same thought. She laughs humourlessly. "Is that the going rate for saving the woman you love?"

"Rose is displeased." Well no kidding, Sherlock. He thinks for a moment. I shrug my jacket back on. "What to do?" Another moment's pause. "I know." He smiles as if he's just had the cleverest idea in the world. "I know." Cal strolls towards me. "Perhaps you could join us, for dinner tomorrow evening. To regale our group, with your heroic tale." He says the whole thing looking at me as if I'm something that he's just wiped off his shoe. Its bad enough that he can literally look down on me.

Well, he's obviously just trying to humiliate me, but then if it means I get to see Rose again its worth it. "Sure. Count me in."

Cal smiles. "Good. Its settled then." With that, he walks away again to join the other man and I hear him mutter to him "This should be interesting." He gets a snort of agreement in response. Rose watches me until Cal reaches her and puts his hand on her shoulder. Never thought I'd be jealous of a first-class man. I look after Rose until she's gone from my sight.

I whistle at Cal's valet, Lovejoy-what a stupid name. "Can I, uh, bum a smoke?" He walks towards me and as he does, he looks exactly like the first-class men. Guess if you spend so much time around them, you end up acting like them. Lovejoy holds out a box of cigarettes. I take two and put one behind my ear and light the other one. "You want to tie those." He remarks as he puts the cigarette box back in his pocket. What? Then I become aware that my shoelaces are still untied. "Its interesting- the young lady slipped so suddenly, and you still had time to remove your jacket and your shoes." He says smiling. He doesn't believe Rose's story about looking at the propellers. That could be a problem.


	3. Chapter 3

13th April

I sit on a bench teaching Cora to draw. On the other side of the bench, Fabrizio is attempting to talk to the blonde Norwegian girl he saw on the first day. Its rather sweet especially because Fabrizio speaks Italian and English and Helga only speaks Norwegian. Ah well. True love always makes it. Tommy is looking at some of my drawings "You're very good, very, very good." I smile at Cora "Thanks."

Cora's parents walk towards us. "Cora, we have to go now. Say goodbye to Uncle Jack." She stands up and waves at me "Bye Uncle Jack." "Bye Cora." I give her a little wave back. Then I continue drawing. I'm engrossed in my work until Fabrizio taps me on the shoulder. "Jack." He points behind me. I look up and see Rose walking towards me. She's here, in third class! I stand up to greet her. "Hello Mr Dawson." She says smiling nervously. How do I greet her back? Do I call her Miss Dewitt Bukater? Just Miss? Would she think I was being to forward if I called her Rose? "Hello again." Is what I settle for. I regret the moment the words are out of my mouth. That just sounded rude. "May I speak with you?" she asks. "Yeah." I say flicking my eyes to Fabrizio, who is watching eagerly. I didn't tell him what happened last night, but he does know I met her last night. How am I meant to act? "In private?" I grin like an idiot. Why did I think that she'd want to talk to me about what happened last night in front of most of the third-class? But then, the fact that she wants to talk to me at all…wow. "Yes, of course." I pick up my sketchbook. "After you." I spy Tommy looking at her admiringly and so as I walk past, I hit him lightly on the shoulder. She's not my lover but I still don't really him looking at her like that. Behind us, I hear Fabrizio and Tommy laugh.

She walks back to the stairs. "Am I allowed up there?" I check. "Yes, you're with me, its fine." She smiles. We walk along the deck in silence for a moment. "Haven't we been having such good weather this voyage?" Rose interrupts the silence by saying. "Yes, I guess we have. Definitely not typical British weather, right?" We both chuckle. Then a thought occurs to me. "Wait, you're not British, are you? I haven't just said something bad about your national weather, have I?"

"No, no, I'm American." She reassures me, laughing. "And you are from Chippewa Falls, correct?" "Yeah, I've lived there for most of my life. My folks owned a store selling everything from doorknobs to books. I was gonna take over from them one day. Left there a few years ago and went travelling."

"So what have you been doing since?" Rose peers at me curiously. "Well, I've been on my own since I was fifteen, since my folks died. And I had no brothers or sisters or close kin in that part of the country, so I lit on out of there and I haven't been back since. You can just call me a tumbleweed blowing in the wind." She smiles at my strange description of myself. "Well, Rose, we've walked about a mile around this boat deck and chewed over how great the weathers been and how I grew up, but I reckon that's not why you came to talk to me, is it?" I look her right in the eye. She takes a deep breath. "Mr Dawson, I-"

"Jack." I interrupt. Nobody's ever called me Mr Dawson before, and it feels odd to be so formal. "Jack." She repeats. "I want to thank you for what you did. Not just for, for pulling me back, but for your discretion."

"You're welcome." I nod at her. She walks ahead of me. "I know what you must be thinking. Poor little rich girl, what does she know about misery?" Why would she think I would think that badly of her? I lean on a rope, "No, no that's not what I was thinking. What I was thinking was, what could've happened to this girl to make her think she had no way out?" What has happened to you to make you think you had no way out, Rose?

"Well, I-" she stops "It was everything." She walks to stand beside me. "It was everything, it was, my whole world and all the people in it. And the inertia of my life, plunging ahead and me, powerless to stop it" She pauses for a moment and holds out her left hand. On her ring finger is the largest diamond I've ever seen on an engagement ring in my life. "God, look at that thing! You would have gone straight to the bottom!" "Five hundred invitations have been sent out, all of high society will be there." She's talking about her wedding to Cal. "And all the while. I feel like I'm standing in the middle of a crowded room, screaming at the top of my lungs, and nobody even looks up!" This does not sound like a girl in love, excitedly talking about her wedding.

"Do you love him?" She whips her head to look at me, shocked. I don't think she ever thought I'd ask that. But its obvious to anyone watching. She doesn't. "Pardon me?"

"Do you love him?" I repeat. She tries to deny it. "You're being very rude. You shouldn't be asking me this!"

"Well, it's a simple question. Do you love the guy or not?"

"This is not a suitable conversation!"

"Why can't you just answer the question?" I counter amused. She laughs almost sarcastically and turns away, putting one hand on her head. "This is absurd! You don't know me, and I don't know you and we are not having this conversation at all. You are rude, and uncouth, and presumptuous" I nod at each one, she's probably right. "And I am leaving now!" She holds out her hand for me to shake. "Jack, Mr Dawson, its been a pleasure. I sought you out to thank you and now I have thanked you-"

"And you've insulted me." I point out. I don't care that she's insulted me- if she's insulting me then she's talking to me and that's more than I ever even dreamed of. She's at a loss for words for a minute. "Well you deserved it!" Yeah, maybe I shouldn't have asked such a personal question so soon. Especially one that I doubt she's ever admitted to anyone. "Right." I agree.

"Right." We're still shaking hands. I look down at our intertwined hands then up at her again. "I thought you were leaving." I say to break the silence, but I don't mean it. "I am." She says as a way of goodbye as she turns to leave. I smile after her. "You are so annoying!" she spins around to say. I chuckle in amusement. She has no idea how cute she is. "Wait!" I don't think she wants to leave any more than I want her to leave. "This is my part of the ship. You leave!" Or maybe not. Her part of the ship, huh?

"Well, well, well! Now who's being rude?" I grin at her. Her moth opens in shock. She looks absolutely at a loss for what to say. In first-class they would never talk to each other this plainly. They undoubtably don't teach well brought up young ladies how to respond to a question like that. Rose grabs my drawing book. "What is this stupid thing you're carrying around?" She queries. "So, what are you, an artist or something?" She starts to look through them. "Well, these are rather good." She admits, moving towards the deck chairs. "They're uh, they're very good actually."

I sit down next to her on a deck chair. "Jack, this is exquisite work!" she exclaims. "Ah, they didn't think much of me in old Paree." I say, thinking back to the people who shunned me and told me that they didn't need anymore penniless artists begging for money. Me and Fabrizio did have a good time there, regardless, but we did go a few nights without dinner. "Paris?" Rose looks up in surprise and I nod. She raises her eyebrows slightly. "You do get around, for a p-," She stops herself. "Well uh, a, a person of limited means."

"Go on, a poor guy, you can say it." Its funny how in first-class the word poor is almost a swear word. Then she flicks to the next drawing which is of a girl who isn't wearing anything. I'd forgotten they were there. If anything is going to scare Rose away, its this. I didn't have a love affair with any of them, I've been travelling so quickly over the last five years that I haven't had the time or even thought about it that much, but she doesn't know that and I know how it looks. "Well, well, well." I run my hand through my hair nervously. "And these were drawn from life?" A man walks past and she hurriedly half shuts the book so he can't see the drawings. I smile at him politely. She doesn't need to worry, he hasn't seen. "Well that's one of the good things about Paris. Lots of girls willing to take their clothes off."

For a minute, I think I've gone too far but then, thankfully, she laughs. I knew she was different from the rest of first-class. Anyone else from her social status would have walked away from me and not looked back. She looks through a couple more. "You like this woman. You used her several times." She comments. "Well, she had beautiful hands, you see?" Rose gazes at me knowingly. "I think you must have had a love affair with her." That's what I wanted to avoid. "No, no, no, no, no. Just with her hands. She was a one-legged prostitute, see?" Rose cranes her neck to look at the drawing from an angle. "Oh."

"Ah, she had a good sense of humour though." I remark. "Oh, and this lady, she used to sit at this bar, every night, wearing every piece of jewellery she owned, just waiting for her long-lost love. We called her Madam Bijoux. See, her clothes are all moth-eaten."

"Well, you have a gift, Jack, you do. You see people." I stare at her intently. "I see you." I say. Rose tosses her head and smiles coyly. "And?"

"You wouldn't've jumped." Her face falls. Shouldn't have said that.

/


	4. Chapter 4

Sometime later, we're walking around the boat deck, discussing different styles of art. "Well, I didn't care too much for all that dotism and cubism, it just had no heart to it."

"I like some of it." Rose smiles.

"Really?" I say, surprised. I'd thought of her as more of a classic sort of girl, landscape paintings and such. "Yes!"

"Well, Paris for me, was more about living on the streets and trying to put it on the paper, you know what I mean?" I explain, hitting my sketchbook to emphasise my point. "You know, my dream has always been to just run away and just become an artist, living in the garret, poor but free!" she tells me wistfully. She makes it all sound so easy, but I know the reality of it. "You wouldn't last two days. Theres no hot water and hardly ever any caviar." I tease her, light-heartedly. She would almost certainly last more than two days, I wish I could take her there, away from first-class. "I happen to hate caviar! And I hate people telling me what dreams I should and shouldn't have!" She snaps, furiously. I was wrong to say that. She already has enough people telling her what her dreams should be- to marry a rich man like her fiancé, I guess- and I never wanted to upset her or put her down. "I'm sorry." I apologise. "You're right."

"Well, alright." Then she starts to talk quickly, as if she's been holding in her feelings a long time. "Everyone expects me to be this delicate little flower which I'm not! I'm sturdy, I'm strong as a horse! I'm here to do something, not just sit around and look decorative!" Rose is very different to any other first-class girl, not that I've met very many. I think most other girls of her social ranking would be quite happy to sit around and look decorative. But she's different and that's what draws me to her. "You see these hands, they were made for work!"

A steward stops to offer her some tea. "No!" she exclaims. I laugh, he come in just at the wrong time. Rose ignores my laughter, "Theres something in me, Jack, like a dynamo, I feel it. I don't know what it is, whether I should be an artist, or a sculptor, or a, I don't know, a, a dancer like Isadora Duncan, a wild pagan spirit!" With these last words, she runs forward and does a twirl. Then she sees a man with a camera. "Or a moving-picture actress!" Giggling, she runs into the view of the camera and strikes a pose. I can see her doing that. she'd be a natural.

She turns to me "Wait, what have you been doing while you've been travelling?" I stroll over to the rail and start to tell her about all the places I've been. "I travelled across America, I went to Minnesota, working as a street cleaner- very glamorous-, then South Dakota begging on the streets,- there was this one time that there was this woman and she thought I was some guy who'd tried to rob her a few days before. He hadn't been caught you see, and she mistook me for him. So, she started screaming at me and calling for help so I had to leave there pretty fast. I moved onto Wyoming working as a farmer."

"You could have sold some of your drawings." Rose points out. "I hadn't thought of that quite yet. I got tired of farming so I left and went to Colorado and I couldn't find any way to earn money, so I ended up gambling at bars and hoping for the best. In Arizona, I helped build train rails. In Nevada, I found a job at a bar, playing the gramophone, choosing music, for people to dance to, you see. Well, after that, I worked on a squid boat in Monterey, then I went down to Los Angeles, to the pier in Santa Monica and started doing portraits there for ten cents apiece."

"Why can't I be like you, Jack? Just head out for the horizon whenever I feel like it." She sighs. Then she turns to me, smiling mischievously. "Say we'll go there, sometime, to that pier, even if we only ever just talk about it." She thinks I'll just talk about it? I'll take her there, whenever she wants. "No, we'll do it. We'll drink cheap beer, we'll ride the rollercoaster til we throw up." She laughs, amazed. "Then we'll ride horses on the beach, right in the surf. Now, but you'll have to do it like a real cowboy, none of that side-saddle stuff." I like saying that we'll do something. Not she'll do something, or I'll do something. We'll do it, together.

"You mean, one leg on each side?" She asks tentatively, making a motion with her fingers. "Yeah."

"Can you show me?"

"Sure. If you like."

She nods, determinedly. "Teach me to ride like a man."

"And chew tobacco like a man." I reply with a southern American accent. "And… spit like a man!" she says, echoing my accent. "What they didn't teach you that in finishing school?"

"No!". Then I have an idea. I don't have a horse or tobacco, but I can teach her to spit like a man. "Well come, I'll show you, lets do it." "Wha-" I take her hand and pull her towards the railing that looks directly out over the ocean. Wouldn't want to spit on anybody. "I'll show you how, come on!" She resists "What, Jack, no, Jack!" "Come on!" "Jack, no!" "Come on!" "Wait, Jack!" "Come on!" I say grinning. "No, Jack, I couldn't possibly, Jack!" I'll never quite understand why first-class people find it so unnatural to occasionally rebel, do something that shocks the other first-class people. "Come on!" By this point, we're at the railing. "Watch closely." I say.

It was quite a competition back in Chippewa Falls so I've had a lot of experience. I spit over the side. "That's disgusting!"

"Alright, your turn." She glances at the people next to us, hesitates, before spitting quickly. "That was pitiful! Come on, you've really got to hock it back, you know, get some leverage to it. Use your arms, arch your neck!" I spit again and point. "Do you see the range on that thing?" She makes a sound of agreement. "Kay, go." I watch as she makes another attempt. "That was better. You gotta work on it."

"Really?"

Really try to hock it up and get some body to it. You know, you gotta-" This is definitely not the way I'd imagined trying to impress her but hey. I start to gather spit in my throat. Rose taps my arm anxiously. She's looking at something behind us. I turn to see four first-class women, staring at us. I swallow fast. One of them looks friendly, the other three definitely not. "Mother!" Rose addresses one of the less friendly looking women. Now that I know she's Rose's mother, I don't know why I didn't see it before. They both share the same fiery red hair.

Rose steps away from me. "May I introduce Jack Dawson." She says formally. I smile awkwardly. "Charmed, I'm sure." She does not sound charmed. This has gotta be some kind of record, worst first impression on a girls mother ever. She turns to Rose, looking for an explanation. The friendly-looking woman motions to her chin. I wipe away the spit quickly. Well, Rose's mother was never gonna like me anyway. Rose starts to explain how we met, and I stand there and nod where in the right places. "So I have a lot to thank him for." Rose finishes. "Well, Jack, seems like you're a good man to have around in a sticky situation!" The friendlier woman remarks. She doesn't sound quite as posh as the other woman. Maybe she wasn't brought up in first-class.

Behind us, a steward starts to play on a trumpet. Would it be a bad idea to ask what he's doing? "Why do they always insist on announcing dinner like a damn calvary charge?" Rose laughs before taking her mother's arm. "Shall we go dress for dinner, Mother?" As they're walking away, Rose says over her shoulder, "See you at dinner, Jack." I waggle my fingers at her, playfully. I twist around people so that I can gaze at her for as long as possible. She's so beautiful, like an angel or a princess.

"Son? Son!" I drag my attention away from Rose to the friendly first-class woman. "Do you have any idea what you're getting yourself into?" she asks. "Not really." And I don't care. All I know is that I can see Rose again and that's all I care about. "Well you're about to go into the snake pit." She says seriously. That sounds bad. She looks me up and down. "What you planning to wear?" I shrug and gesture at the clothes I'm wearing. Am I supposed to wear anything different?

She sighs and takes my arm. "Come on." She says. "I'm Molly Brown."

She takes me down to her rooms. "Why do I need to change to eat dinner?" I question curiously. "Of course you do. Do you really think first-class people would go to dinner wearing the clothes they'd worn all day? What a scandal that would cause." She pauses for a second, rolling her eyes. "And you really need to look like one of them. You've probably already guessed that Cal only invited you so that he could laugh at you."

"Yeah, I guessed."

"First things first, you need to use this." Molly hands me a pot. I open it and I see its filled with a clear, sticky liquid. "What is this?" I ask, confused.

"Its for your hair. How do you think first-class men's hair stays in place all day?"

"I'd never really thought about it. Err, how do I use it?" I ask, a little embarrassed.  
"Don't worry, when me and my husband first hit the money, he had no idea what it was either." She chuckles. She dips one hand into the pot, takes out some of it, and pulls my hair back with the other. She slicks the stuff across my hair. Its feels weird, so I put a hand up to touch it. Molly smacks my hand away. "Don't do that, it hasn't set yet. It'll get all messed up." She hands the pot back to me. "You can do the rest now."  
So this is what first-class men do to get ready. I wonder what would happen if one of the first-class men came to dinner with hair like mine. They've probably never even considered it. I look in the mirror to check my hair- I never thought I'd say that. Molly looks at me, impressed. "You sure you've never used this stuff before, Jack?"

"Positive." I assure her.

She rummages through one of her suitcases and pulls out a shirt, trousers and jacket. "Go and change into these." She tells me, pointing to the bathroom. I take the clothes from her and lock the bathroom door behind me. I've never worn such fancy clothes in my life.

I change into the clothes she gave me quickly and then go back to the sitting room. Molly waves me towards the mirror. I look at myself in the mirror and run my hands through my hair. "I was right! You and my son are just about the same size!" Molly states. "Pretty close." I agree, adjusting the jacket. "You shine up like a new penny." She laughs.

"I'll see you at dinner. Now I need to get dressed for dinner." I nod and walk towards the door. I turn at the door. "Thank you, Molly."  
"You're very welcome, son."

I walk down the corridors until I see a steward opening a door for a man in a suit. Clearly, I need to go there to get to dinner.


	5. Chapter 5

As I approach the door, the stewards opens the door for me and smiles politely, like he nodded for the man in first-class. I smile awkwardly back. I'm not used to people in first-class or staff treating me like first-class not something they've just scraped off their shoe. All around me, first-class people are chatting and walking towards the stairs. I look over the balcony, trying to fit in with the first-class people. I don't get any odd looks so that's good.

I adjust my jacket again nervously as I walk down the stairs. I can't see Rose, so I lean against a column. Looking around, I can't see anyone else leaning against anything, they're all standing up straight. I quickly straighten up. Hopefully no one noticed although they'll probably find out I'm not one of them soon enough. Cal can't make fun of me if they all think I'm a first-class heir. They're all walking around with their hands behind their backs, so I do to.

An older man walks past me, "Good evening." He nods. He holds himself with his free hand held in front of him. Should I do that? I watch him walk to try and copy him, but it feels wrong, so I put my arm back at my side. Another man nods at me as he walks past, and I nod again. It seems to be the thing to do.

I hear Cal's pompous voice from somewhere above me, "Did you know that there are seven thousand tonnes of Hockley steel in this very ship?" I walk to the bottom of the stairs to greet them, Cal may not plan on being polite, but I will be. Unlike him, my parents taught me to be good-mannered.

"Which ones?"

"All the right ones of course."

"Then we'll know who to blame if theres a problem, won't we?" Rose's mother replies. "Where's my daughter?" "Oh, she'll be along." As they get to the bottom of the stairs, Cal just nods and walks on to kiss the hand of a first-class woman. Of course.

I turn away from them and pretend to shake an imaginary person's hand. I look up for a second and see a woman in a red dress. I go back to my imaginary greeting for a second before I realise. Rose! She comes down the staircase. She looks so beautiful, possibly even more beautiful than she already did, if that's even possible. I walk towards her. She looks surprised, even more when I take her hand and kiss it. "I saw that in a Nickelodeon once and I always wanted to do it." She laughs and I grin.

I hold out my arm for her to take and she takes it, still smiling. I hold my head up ridiculously high to make her laugh. I put on a posh expression. Rose leans forward to tap Cal's arm. "Darling? Surely you remember Mr Dawson?" Cal looks at me and does a double take. "Dawson? Well its amazing, you could almost pass for a gentleman!"

"Almost." Cal smiles, shaking his head in disbelief. "Extraordinary." Is it really so impossible that I could put on a suit and look vaguely like a stuck-up first-class man? Rose's mother takes his arm again and they walk away. Rose looks at me worriedly. I wasn't expecting any else from Cal. I give her a little shrug. We walk down some more stairs and then stop to wait for Cal and her mother to talk to a couple. "Theres the Countess of Roth." She discreetly points to the woman who Cal greeted earlier. "And um that's John Jacob Astor, the richest man on the ship. His little wifey there, Madeline, is my age and in a delicate condition. See how she's trying to hide it? Quite the scandal."

"And that's Benjamin Guggenheim and his mistress, Madam Aubart. Mrs Guggenheim is at home with the children, of course." Wait, how does she know that he has a mistress and his wife doesn't? "And over here we have Sir Cosmo and Lucille, Lady Duff-Gordon." Rose points out the couple her mother and Cal are talking too. They wave at her and she waves back. She designs naughty lingerie, among her many talents." Well who woulda thought first-class people do that for a hobby?

"Very popular with the royals." Rose adds and I snort with laughter. The royals like naughty lingerie? We walk into the dining room and Molly swishes up behind us. "Care to escort a lady to dinner?"

"Certainly." I hold out my other arm for Molly. Cal turns around. "Sweetpea? Sweetpea?" He calls to Rose. She just ignores him. What kind of name is Sweetpea anyway? Why would he nickname Rose after a vegetable? Great way to show how much you love her.

"Aint nothing to it, is there Jack? Remember, they love money, so just pretend like you own a gold mine and you're in the club." Molly says. I hold up my chin proudly. I can pretend to own a gold mine. I nod at everyone we pass, it seems to be what you should do. We reach John Jacob Astor and his wife Madeline Astor. "Hey, Astor!" Molly calls, cheerfully. He smiles, but I can tell that he's not used to being greeted so casually. "Why, hello, Molly."

Rose steps away from me. "JJ, Madeline, I'd like you to meet Jack Dawson." I shake both their hands. "Pleasure."

"Hello Jack."

John Jacob Astor looks at me curiously. "Are you from the Boston Dawsons?" He asks. "No, the Chippewa Falls Dawsons, actually."

"Oh, yes." I've never heard of your family, but oh, yes.

I take the Countess of Roth's hand and kiss it. She looks at me oddly but then smiles in the way that first-class people do when they don't like someone but are trying not to show it. "Sweetpea, come sit next to me." Cal orders. Rose smiles apologetically at me before sitting in the chair next to Cal.

Molly taps the chair next to her "Jack?"  
"Thanks, Molly." Rose picks up a napkin and coughs. Am I supposed to do something with it? I pick it up and hold it to my face.

"Tell us about the conditions in steerage, Mr Dawson. I hear they're quite good on this ship." Roses mother asks me. Here we go. But I won't let her make fun of third-class. "The best I've seen, Ma'am. Hardly any rats." The other people at the table laugh. "Mr Dawson is joining us from the third-class. He was of some assistance to my fiancée last night." Cal explains. Your fiancée has a name, Cal.

"It turns out Mr Dawson is quite a fine artist." Rose adds. Why, thank you, Rose. "Rose and I differ somewhat in our definition of fine art. Not to impugn your work, sir."

Definitely not what you were doing. I wave my hand to say no. "And where exactly do you live, Mr Dawson?"

"Well, right now my address is the RMS Titanic. After that I'm on gods good humour."

"And how is it that you have means to travel?"

"I work from place to place, you know, tramp steamers and such. But I won my ticket on Titanic here at a lucky hand at poker. A very lucky hand." My eyes glance at Rose.

"All life is a game of luck." The other man from first-class yesterday announces.

"A real man makes his own luck, Archie. Right, Dawson?" No one can make their own luck, you never know whats gonna happen. I nod anyway.

"And you find that sort of rootless existence appealing?" Well two can play at that game. I can see Molly glaring at her. "Well, yes, Ma'am, I do. I mean, got everything I need right here with me. Got air in my lungs and a few blank sheets of paper. Mean, I love waking up in the morning not knowing whats gonna happen or, who I'm gonna meet." My eyes flick to Rose again. "Where I'm gonna wind up. Just the other night, I was sleeping under a bridge and now here I am, on the grandest ship in the world, having champagne with you fine people. I'll take some more of that." I hold my glass up to the steward. "I figure life's a gift and I don't intend on wasting it. You never know what hand you're gonna get dealt next. You learn to take life as it comes at you. Here you go, Cal" I throw a lighter across the table to him. He catches it, looking annoyed. "To make each day count." I say, looking around the table.

"Well said, Jack." Molly nods.

"Hear, hear!" The first-class man, Archie says.

To making it count." Rose holds up her glass. The rest of the table echo her toast. I hold my glass up. Cal does too, out of obligation. Rose's mother just glares.

Later in the meal, Molly finishes telling a story about her husband coming home drunk. "Now its brandies in the smoking room." Rose whispers to me. Umm, should I know what that is? Colonel something Gracie stands up. "Join me in a brandy, gentlemen?" Rose raises her eyebrows. "Now they retreat into a cloud of smoke and congratulate each other on being masters of the universe." She tells me. "Ladies, thank you for the pleasure of your company." Mr Ismay smarms.

I pull a small piece of paper and a pencil from my pocket. You never know when you might need them. I write a note under the table and fold it up.

Make it count

Meet me at the clock

I pass Molly back the cigarette holder she lent me. "Here you go Molly." All the other men are standing up, to go and congratulate each other on being masters of the universe, I guess. "Joining us, Dawson?" Colonel Gracie asks me cheerfully. "No, I've got to be heading back." I reply. "Ah" He nods and walks away. I walk around the table to Rose, folding the paper into my hand. She looks up at me, "Jack, must you go?"

"Time for me to go row with the other slaves." I joke.

"Goodnight, Rose." I take her hand and kiss it, making sure the note stays in her hand. I walk away, I look back at her a second later to look at her. She quickly hides it under the table. As I reach the door, I see her reading it. I walk up the stairs and wait.

A few minutes later, I hear footsteps on the stairs behind me. I turn, a smile on my face. "So you wanna go to a real party?"

Authors note: Do you think this really sounds like Jack? Because obviously that's what I'm trying to do but I'm not sure. If you could review and tell me what you think what you think that would be really helpful!


	6. Chapter 6

"A party?" Her beautiful face crinkles up in confusion. I nod "Come with me." I hold out my hand and she takes it, smiling with excitement. We walk past the stewards, out the door and down to third-class. Rose's stunning blue eyes open wide as she sees the third-class party. "Never seen anything like this, huh?"

She shakes her head. "Never!" I pull my jacket off and throw it on a chair and then loosen the stiff collar of the shirt and roll up my sleeves. I don't know how first-class men wear those things all the time.

"Jack?" I hear Fabrizio's voice. I turn to see him and Helga. She points to me. "How are you wearing a suit, Jack?" Fabrizio asks. "Boyo?" Tommy appears. "Where the hell did you get that?" He asks in amazement. "First-class dinner." I shrug. They stare at me as if I said I went to the moon. Before I can say anything else, Cora runs up to us. "Uncle Jack!"

"Cora!" I greet her, bending down to be the same height as her. She grins and then looks at Rose "Who is the pretty girl, Uncle Jack?"

"This is Rose, Cora. Rose, this is Cora." I introduce them. Just then the band starts up another song. "Dance with me, Uncle Jack!" She tugs my hand, pulling me towards the middle of the room. I look to Rose, "Will you be alright?" She nods, sitting down at a table where fortunately Bjorn, one of my cabin mates, is sitting. "Can you look after her?" I ask him and Tommy, Fabrizio and Helga have gone to dance. "Sure." Bjorn nods. Rose smiles at me "Dance!" She waves her hands towards the people dancing. "As the lady wishes." I grin at her and Cora. I dance with Cora.

The song ends. I bend down so I'm at Cora's eyelevel and point to Rose "I'm gonna dance with her now, alright?" She nods and Rose stares at me. "Come on." I say beckoning towards her with my hand.

"What?"

"Come on. Come with me." I pull her to her feet.

"What, Jack! Jack wait! I can't do this." Rose protests. I know she can. She's stronger than she thinks. "We're gonna have to get a bit closer. Like this." I pull her towards me. She gasps but doesn't protest.

I see Cora out of the corner of my eye. "You're still my best girl Cora." I reassure her and she smiles

"I don't know the steps!"

"Neither do I! Just go with it! Don't think!" And she does. I feel her relax and start to shriek with laughter as we whirl around the room.

Tommy

I laugh as I watch Jack whirl his first-class girl around the floor. Just yesterday he saw her, and I said he'd never have a chance with her, cos she's from first-class but here she is dancing with him. And she came down to look for him this afternoon as well. I don't see the angels but they must be there.

Jack

"Wait Jack, Jack! Wait! Stop, Jack!"

I see Fabrizio and Helga up on the stage in the middle and I pull Rose towards it. I want to show her something. "Wait!"

I step up onto the stage and as the band plays, I dance an Irish jig I learned in a pub in Ireland. She grins mischievously and takes her shoes off and hands them to a woman standing at the side of the stage. Then she dances an Irish jig as well. Where did she learn to do that? I stare at her for a moment. She's amazing. Then I dance my Irish jig and she does too. She's like no other first-class girl, that's for sure. She's fiery, strong and beautiful. I link my arm with hers for a moment before I take both her hands and spin us both around. "Jack, no!" She protests. She screams and then I do in delight.

She stumbles and I catch her. "I've never been so dizzy in my life!" She giggles. I take her hand and lead her off the stage. We walk to where Tommy and Bjorn are sitting. They're arm wrestling. They've abandoned three beers on the table, and I lean round them and take two, handing one to Rose. She takes it and I take a sip of mine. I look at Rose and she's glugged half her cup. She looks at me "What? You think a first-class girl can't drink?" I laugh in amazement, she's so much stronger than I ever imagined.

A man bumps into me, knocking the cup of beer all over Rose. She yelps in surprise and I shove the man away. "Get out of here!" I shout at him. "You alright?" I ask, turning back to her, but to my relief, she's laughing. I try to wipe it off her, but she brushes my hand away. "I'm fine." She insists.

Bjorn knocks Tommy's hand to the table "Two out of three, two out of three!" Tommy protests. Bjorn just laughs at him. "So" Rose says, "You think you're big, tough men?" She takes Tommy's cigarette out of his mouth and smokes it. "Lets see you do this. Hold this Jack." She turns to me, holding up the end of her dress. I take it, raising my eyebrows mysteriously at the table, I have absolutely no idea what she's gonna do.

She starts to raise up onto her toes, lifting her arms as well, until she's right on the tips of her toes. We all look at her in amazement. Her mouth opens and she collapses with a little cry and I catch her in my arms "You alright?" She nods giggling. "I haven't done that in years!" We both laugh and I gaze at her for a moment.

Another tune starts up and people join hands in a long line. Fabrizio and Helga are at the end of the line and as they pass, Fabrizio grabs Rose's hand. She in turn grabs mine, pulling me into the line. We dance around the whole room, laughing until we can't laugh any more.

For hours we dance and I see Rose come more and more out of the shell that first-class has forced her into. But the party has to come to an end and too soon, it seems, I have to take her back.


	7. Chapter 7

I walk towards the stairs, wanting to spend as much time with her as I can. We walk up the stairs, laughing. When we get to the top deck, I notice Rose wrap her arms around herself, shivering. I take my jacket off and hold it out to her. She smiles. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." I say in an exaggerated first-class manner to make her laugh. We walk along for a moment in companionable silence. Without realising it, I start to hum under my breath. Rose smiles at me and sings along with me. I grin back and sing with her. We laugh as we forget the words half way through but carry on singing.

She trails off, I look at her and I see her looking ahead of us and I see the entrance to First Class. Rose turns to me and pulls the suit jacket off her shoulders and passes it to me "Here we are."

"Right."

We stand in silence for a moment ."I don't want to go back." She say almost conspiratively. I don't want you to go back either, I want to say. She looks up at the sky "Look." She gazes upwards at the stars "Its so beautiful."

"Yeah." I agree staring up at the night sky. Rose walks towards the side and swings around a rope.

"So vast and endless. But they're so small. My crowd, they think they're giants but they're not even dust in God's eye." I look back down at her.

"You know there's been a mistake." Rose looks at me oddly. "You're not one of them. You got mailed to the wrong address." She laughs. "I did, didn't I? Look! A shooting star!" She points. I stand next to her and watch the star streak across the sky. "That was a long one." I marvel "You know my pops used to tell me, every time you saw one, it was a soul going to heaven."

"I like that. Are we supposed to wish on it?"

I look at her intently "Why? What would you wish for?" Her face falls.

"Something I can't have." She's still so trapped. I want to help her break free. She puts her hand on my shoulder "Good night Jack." She walks away and I turn and take a step after her but she's already walking through the door and shutting it behind her.

Something she can't have? Did she mean freedom? She can't have meant me, could she? No, don't be so selfish, of course she didn't mean you. I walk slowly back towards third-class, deep in thought.

I step back inside my cabin and Fabrizio sits up in his bunk. "Jack!"

"Hello, Fabri." I greet him, sitting down on my bunk. He leans down "What happened?" He asks eagerly.

"You saw how free she was right?"

"Yes, of course. She was happy!"

"When she was here, she was so free, so happy, but when she goes back there, she's still so trapped, by her mother and her fiancé. I have to help her break free, Fabri."

"We are a, uh, pair aren't we-a? Rosa is-a trapped and engaged to a bastardo, and Helga does not speak the-a same language. Her papa does not like me, either, mi amico. You are not the only one." We both chuckle.


End file.
